Thanks to Bill Bryson for the blog title ... Back to the TT for another year, this time without Tom but with Margaret (my long-suffering wife) who is watching for the first time. She enjoys motorcycle racing (well, some of it) and I think she might enjoy the experience.
I was doing a few things differently this year. As usual, I'd feinted at the sight of the price of a Steam Packet crossing (even one from Heysham at 1am) and so the decision was to fly in again. Even air tickets seemed expensive this year and, in a fit of madness, I booked flights from Blackpool airport. The advantages are free parking and a short flight time - what could possibly go wrong?
Flights were £140 each (return) which is a little more than I've paid in the past, but travel costs to the airport are only about £50 in fuel. We'd have paid around £150 in train fares to Gatwick and back, plus £20 taxi to the station.
The free car park was fine until the tide came in ... I'm joking, of course, but it wasn't great - it was a grass field, with long grass and was quite uneven. I went into P2, so perhaps P1 is better. It was also pretty full, although we did find a slot reasonably quickly. The park is about 10 minutes walk from the terminal, which is tiny, has no facilities and charges everyone an airport tax of £10.
Ours was the only flight leaving and we were flying with CityWing, although the carrier was VanAir. After checking a bag in, we went through to the departure lounge, which is quite nice; even nicer was complimentary food and drink. It's a short walk to the plane, which was a small, twin-engine turbo-prop seating 20 people. We sat immediately behind the pilot and co-pilot.
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| All aboard - all 18 of us - on VanAir to Douglas. |
We got a good view of Blackpool Tower and the Pleasure Beach as we took off and 40 minutes later we were in Ronaldsway. We've used the same taxi driver, David Bates (07624 480048), for the past few years. I'd called him the day before and he was there waiting for us.
Taxi to Douglas costs £20 each way. It should be £22, but I got discount because I booked David for the return journey as well.
David knows everything there is to know about the Isle of Man. We were staying at the Empress on the sea front and Dave said it was very nice but people complained that the rooms were small - he was spot on. Our room barely had enough space to walk around the double bed, we had to keep moving the case in order to get through doors and you had to take it in turns to get dressed. The bathroom was quite large and had a good shower. Apart from the size of the rooms, the Empress was very good. It has a nice bar with a sea view if you can get a table in the conservatory and there's a decent restaurant. We ate there a couple of nights, David said the food was OK (and it was - no need for Trip Advisor, just ask David).
We arrived at about 7pm on Friday night, so the roads were closed for practice. We dumped the bags and headed straight to the bottom of Bray Hill, which was quite busy, watched a few bikes go past and then headed back down into town for some food and our first visit to Bushy's beer tent. Fish and chips were good, but Bushy's was rammed. The Miss Wet T-Shirt competition is now on every night and it starts at 9pm, so perhaps the crowd was packed in ready for that.
We were going to watch from Creg ny Ba on Saturday and the hotel very quickly arranged a taxi for us. David said we'd get a better service if we booked it through the hotel as drivers needed the business from hotels at quieter times and couldn't afford to upset them.
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| The new grandstand at Cregg ny Ba |
It was a £10 ride up to the Creg and because Margaret was with me this year, I'd splashed out on grandstand seats at £25 each. Tom and I had seen the grandstand last year; we'd tried to sneak in but had been asked to leave and ended up on the wall 100 metres down the road. It looked like a good spot, but actually wasn't ideal - you were further away from the bikes and depending where your seat was in the grandstand, you could either see the bikes coming down to the corner or accelerating away.
There are more stands around the TT now (more commercial stands, not the home-made things you get at Hillberry or Braddan Bridge). They seat more and charge more, but at least they don't look as if they'll fall down any minute. This year, the pub at the Creg was closed during racing and a big food and beer tent put up behind it. I guess it was a good idea as there was much more room to serve loads of people quickly. You couldn't move in the pub last year and the toilets were not a pleasant sight.
The Superbike TT and Sidecar Race 1 were both pretty dramatic. Michael Dunlop set lap records on the first and second laps and then controlled the race, sitting on a safe lead. Guy Martin was riding better than I've ever seen him, but he couldn't match Dunlop's pace - no-one could. Well, no-one except Bruce Anstey, who broke the lap record on the last lap. It was a valiant effort, but too late to change the outcome. Anstey was the first person to break the 132mph barrier, which is an incredible average speed. It would have been slightly faster, but he outbraked himself coming down to Creg and almost ended up in the pub.
Brazilian Rafael Paschoalin from São Paulo was not so lucky. He got out of control coming into the corner, did massive a massive rolling stoppie into the barrier and went flying over the hay bales to land among the picnic tables in front of the pub. It was hilarious, but we stopped laughing when he wasn't moving. Fortunately, he was only knocked senseless and was soon on his feet to a round of applause.
I was pleased for Dunlop, it was a brave decision to leave Honda (presumably because he wasn't being paid as much as McGuinness) and I was glad to see BMW's first TT win in 75 years. That's something of a contentious statement as people will point out that sidecars powered by BMW engines have won many times and also single-cylinder supermono machines (which had formed the lightweight class) were also BMW (Rotax) powered.
The sidecar race saw the lead change hands several times before Conrad Harrison came home for his first TT win. His son, Dean, was riding in solo events and he rode really well all week, finally winning the Lightweight TT on Friday. It's the first time a father and son have won TT races in the same week.
I'd got a card from the taxi driver on the way up (TeleCabs – 01624 670266) and called them in the hope of getting a ride back to Douglas on the back road. They were really good and were with us in about 20 minutes. While we were waiting, we got talking to a couple of blokes who asked if they could share the cab. It meant a £20 fare was halved, so we said: fine.
They were an interesting pair. They lived in Anglesey and had come across with four mates, one of whom owns a large sailing yacht, which they bring over each year. It had taken them nine hours to sail from Anglesey and they were now moored in Douglas Harbour, sleeping on the yacht. That's one way to avoid high hotel prices and the Steam packet rip-off. The chap said the wind was against them, so they'd put the back sail up to stabilise the boat and run across for eight hours on the engine. The wind had then been more favourable and they'd put the sails up. He said it was wonderful when the yacht was surging forward in complete silence fully wind powered.
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| Inside Bushy's beer tent. |
After the racing, we had a quickie in Bushy's and then went to Papparazzi for a meal. I'd wanted Margaret to see the restaurant as we'd eaten in there every year and always had a good time. The old chap who gave us a lecture about stress wasn't there and nor was the old woman who takes your money. We got talking with the chief waiter and he told me they were all Maltese, I'd just assumed they were Italians.
Sunday is Mad Sunday, but we were on foot, so the maddest it got was crossing before the green man came on as we walked up the hill towards Nobles Park and the Paddock for a bit of celeb spotting. Last year, we'd seen Guy Martin and John McGuinness, but we were a little early in the day for most teams and many of the shutters were still down on the garages.
We did see a weary-looking Michael Rutter with his scruffy little dog. An old woman was taking a picture of her husband with Rutter and I asked her if she wanted me to take it so she could be in the shot. "No thanks," she said, "I don't go in for all this hero worship rubbish."
I thought that was a bit mean in front of Michael, but he took it in good part.
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| Bruce Anstey's lap-record-setting tyres. |
We saw Gary Johnson, Bruce Anstey's tyres from his record-breaking lap and Michael Dunlop working hard with fans. I've always considered him to be a grumpy character, but despite being in an obvious hurry, he never refused an autograph or to pose for a picture. One family thought they'd missed their chance, but Dunlop came back for a photo before dashing back into hospitality. They were so pleased. I'm starting to warm towards Michael Dunlop.
In previous years, there's been a Monster Energy stunt show on the promenade in front of the Villa Marina, but this year it was missing (and so was the Okells beer tent). I'd hoped to show Margaret the stunt show, she would have enjoyed it.
On Monday, we'd decided to watch from Hillberry, so we set off pretty early to get a good position and stocked up with goodies from the Spar shop on the way. The walk doesn't seem as far as it did the first time I did it (with Tom a couple of years ago) and I thought there were not many people about. The reason was because racing had been delayed and no-one was quite sure that it was going to happen due to low cloud on the mountain section.
We sat from 9.30am until around 1.30pm before the racing started. It should have been Supersport and Superstock, but the Superstock was postponed until Tuesday because they wouldn't have been able to get the roads open in time for people to get home from work. People on the Isle of Man put up with a lot of inconvenience because the TT is so important to the island's tourist industry - but there are limits.
We were able to get a seat right at the front near the road, so the racing was good. They have resurfaced the road since last year and seem to have created a bigger dip than was there previously. It's right in front of the apex and throws the bikes off line if they hit it wrong. Gary Johnson won on a Triumph, so no Japanese success in solos in two races - extraordinary! I was pleased to see a Triumph win and it sounded fantastic. Johnson rode really well.
Sadly, the Supersport race saw the first of two fatalities during racing. Bob Price from Stroud, who was still racing at 65 years, died in a crash. He wasn't a front runner and was using the TT as practice and testing for the Manx later in the year. The second fatality came on Tuesday when Karl Harris was killed on lap two of the Superstock race. Bob Price went by with hardly a ripple, but Harris' death caused massive shock. He's a former European Superstock champion, British Supersport champion and has ridden for top teams in British Superbike racing. He's the biggest name to die at the TT since David Jefferies.
We watched the Superstock from the bottom of Bray Hill and went across to the inside of the track, where you can see the bikes coming down the hill and feel really close to them as they pass you by. This was Margaret's favourite viewing spot and we were good and early so that we could get a position right against the barrier, but racing was once again delayed. This time it was a road accident somewhere on the road out from Douglas. You see people riding like complete idiots all week, so it's hardly surprising there are so many accidents. This must have been fatal or fairly serious because the police took well over an hour before the road could be opened (and then closed for racing). Bray Hill is a good place to watch, but there are no facilities to either buy food and drink, or go to the toilet. You need forward planning and a strong bladder. Michael Dunlop once again dominated the race on a stock BMW and to illustrate the fickle nature of success, Gary Johnson, who had won the Supersport the day before, crashed just after Ramsey hairpin and broke several bones. That was his TT over.
Wednesday was our last day on the island, but our flight was at 4pm, so we didn't need to leave for the airport until about 2.30pm. We decided to watch from St Ninian's where you can get a view of the start and then a bit of the crossroads. The people at the church provide a really good service - chairs are £1 each and you can get really nice refreshments at a good price. There are also toilets in the church hall.
The electric bikes were first off and this was something of a foregone conclusion. Mugen were well ahead of a depleted field, with no competition from four-time champs Motoczysz due to the owner being ill, and the only question was whether McGuinness or Anstey would win. In the end, it was McGuinness who triumphed with a lap of 115.598mph. Only last year, the organisers were offering £10,000 for the first 100mph lap, so it shows the progress of this technology.
It's a shame more bikes can't make the grid and, at present, there's too much of a gap between Mugen and the rest. The organisers should stick with it though, it's interesting to see the bikes develop.
On conventional machinery - Supersport race two - Michael Dunlop was once again triumphant, this time on his own private Honda CBR600.
Later in the week, Dunlop would take his fourth victory, riding the BMW Superbike to first place in the Senior. It was a great week for Dunlop and for BMW.
Our journey home was very good. The plane was bang on time, we were at Blackpool before you knew it and the journey home took four hours and 15 minutes from take off until we were back home.
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